NERC still fails to understand the way a leading specialist in alpha taxonomy works. This remains a major reason for the current decline in fundamental alpha taxonomy. As a recognized leading specialist on a large family of flies ... I am representative of those who are unable to procure funding from NERC because of their inappropriate criteria”,
The demand for the PRIOR specification of hypotheses to be tested when one applies for funding to revise a taxon means one has to do much research first in order to generate the hypotheses to be tested. Who funds this prior research? Furthermore, part of being recognized as a leading specialist is that the unexpected constantly arrives in the post ... In practice I am obliged to routinely reject most requests which lack novel biological data or are not specimens of applied significance. Even so I have a 20-year backlog of randomly collected specimens. I concentrate on the processing of specimens with novel biological material. Since 1984 I have been funded entirely by private trusts ... as NERC routinely rejects applications for undertaking fundamental alpha taxonomy. My current funding for 2008/2009 is £500 only! Despite this I have the highest publication rate and the largest number of co-authors ... from the largest number of countries overseas, of anyone in my Department-the Leading Department of Zoology in the country”.
Disney, R. H. L., 2009. [Quotation from e-mail on NERC’s criteria for funding – from speech by Baroness Walmsley]. Lords Hansard 25 March 2009: GC228.